要做到这一点，最简单和最便宜的方法是利用回声忽略空格。所以，就用

dest=$(echo $source)

例如:

> VAR="   Hello    World   "
> echo "x${VAR}x"
x   Hello    World   x
> TRIMD=$(echo $VAR)
> echo "x${TRIMD}x"
xHello Worldx

注意，这也将多个空格合并为一个空格。

这就是我所做的，结果完美而简单:

the_string="        test"
the_string=`echo $the_string`
echo "$the_string"

输出:

test

从Bash指南的通配符部分

在参数展开中使用extglob

 #Turn on extended globbing  
shopt -s extglob  
 #Trim leading and trailing whitespace from a variable  
x=${x##+([[:space:]])}; x=${x%%+([[:space:]])}  
 #Turn off extended globbing  
shopt -u extglob  

下面是相同的函数封装在函数中(注意:需要引用传递给函数的输入字符串):

trim() {
    # Determine if 'extglob' is currently on.
    local extglobWasOff=1
    shopt extglob >/dev/null && extglobWasOff=0 
    (( extglobWasOff )) && shopt -s extglob # Turn 'extglob' on, if currently turned off.
    # Trim leading and trailing whitespace
    local var=$1
    var=${var##+([[:space:]])}
    var=${var%%+([[:space:]])}
    (( extglobWasOff )) && shopt -u extglob # If 'extglob' was off before, turn it back off.
    echo -n "$var"  # Output trimmed string.
}

用法:

string="   abc def ghi  ";
#need to quote input-string to preserve internal white-space if any
trimmed=$(trim "$string");  
echo "$trimmed";

如果我们将函数更改为在subshell中执行，我们不必担心检查extglob的当前shell选项，我们可以只设置它而不影响当前shell。这极大地简化了函数。我还更新了位置参数“就地”，所以我甚至不需要一个局部变量

trim() {
    shopt -s extglob
    set -- "${1##+([[:space:]])}"
    printf "%s" "${1%%+([[:space:]])}" 
}

so:

$ s=$'\t\n \r\tfoo  '
$ shopt -u extglob
$ shopt extglob
extglob         off
$ printf ">%q<\n" "$s" "$(trim "$s")"
>$'\t\n \r\tfoo  '<
>foo<
$ shopt extglob
extglob         off

如果启用了shop -s extglob，那么下面是一个简洁的解决方案。

这招对我很管用:

text="   trim my edges    "

trimmed=$text
trimmed=${trimmed##+( )} #Remove longest matching series of spaces from the front
trimmed=${trimmed%%+( )} #Remove longest matching series of spaces from the back

echo "<$trimmed>" #Adding angle braces just to make it easier to confirm that all spaces are removed

#Result
<trim my edges>

用更少的行数来获得相同的结果:

text="    trim my edges    "
trimmed=${${text##+( )}%%+( )}

使用这个简单的Bash参数展开:

$ x=" a z     e r ty "
$ echo "START[${x// /}]END"
START[azerty]END

你可以简单地使用echo进行修剪:

foo=" qsdqsd qsdqs q qs   "

# Not trimmed
echo \'$foo\'

# Trim
foo=`echo $foo`

# Trimmed
echo \'$foo\'